IRAQ: A US soldier was sentenced to a year in jail yesterday after confessing he and colleagues abused Iraqi prisoners in a scandal that threatens to undermine President Bush's re-election chances.
Military policeman Jeremy Sivits, who apologised to Iraqis at the first court martial of soldiers accused of abuses, which sparked worldwide outrage, was also expelled from the army.
It was not enough for protesters outside Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
"It's a kangaroo court, set up just to placate Iraqis," said Hala Azzawi, mother of one of some 3,000 Iraqis held at the jail near Baghdad, notorious as Saddam Hussein's torture centre.
"I wish they would get death, it's less than they deserve."
Sivits, a 24-year-old reservist, pointed the finger at others, against whom he will testify under a plea bargain, over the abuses.
Chief among them was Specialist Charles Graner who, Sivits said, pulled out a camera after stamping on naked prisoners.
Sivits, who faced the lightest charges of seven US soldiers accused so far, admitted pushing a prisoner into a pile of naked Iraqis, in what became an infamous picture.
Three more guards at the prison were arraigned on more serious charges as the abuse scandal and guerrilla violence increased pressure on Washington to hand over real power to Iraqis along with formal sovereignty on June 30th.
Graner, Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick and Sergeant Javal Davis all deferred pleas at quick-fire hearings and will appear again on June 21st.
US officials had said repeatedly the abuses were confined to a small group of guards at Abu Ghraib, although the International Committee of the Red Cross and Amnesty International say abuse was more systematic and widespread.
But General John Abizaid, head of US Central Command, suggested mistreatment was more extensive than acknowledged previously, saying the US military had investigated 75 cases of abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan since late 2002.
"I think the question before us : is there a systemic abuse problem with regard to interrogation that exists in the Central Command area of operations?" he told a Senate hearing.
The scandal has battered the image of the United States across the Arab world and prompted calls from around the world for Washington to hand over real power to Iraqis.
Even close US allies joined the chorus after Monday's assassination of Izzedin Salim, head of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.
Italy and Poland, major contributors to US-led forces in Iraq, urged Washington to give Iraqis real power when it hands over sovereignty in six weeks.
The Governing Council is sending a delegation to the United Nations to demand Washington gives a new interim government more powers than intended in the June 30th handover.
Some of its members have even demanded security be handed over to the government, although Washington says a sudden U S departure from Iraq would risk bloodier anarchy in a country of religious and ethnic divides. - (Reuters)